Visiting Pheasant!

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Married!

So on April 18th 2010 I proposed to my then girlfriend. She said yes and on September 17th 2011 we were married! The day was amazing and perfect (ignoring football traffic).

Here are some links to photos of the day:

• Official Photos
• Sean's Photos

My First Eastercon

I've been to a couple of conventions before. FantasyCon is fun if you already know a few other attendees, and Alt.Fiction has great panels (and is also just down the road). It was with a little trepidation that I agreed to accompany my better half to Illustrious (Eastercon). I don't really consider myself to a part of any fandom, for the most part because I read pretty slowly and can't keep up with everything. I also seem to have unreasonably high standards for books and a tendency to end up not liking the "great works". Mostly though, I was shit-scared. Four days is a long time to spend inflicting yourself on other people and my anxieties were on fine form.

I needn't have worried. Everyone was lovely and welcoming and fun. Despite the ridiculous hotel (dismissive, confused staff and horrendous prices for pretty much everything), I had an brilliant time, made a bunch of new friends and even attended some panels!

So, onward to what I've learned!

• You need a food plan. Hotel food is crazy expensive and the NEC area is effectively an industrial wasteland, especially on a bank holiday weekend.
• Monorails are still awesome. We discovered that we could use one to reach our hotel.
• Do not go to an Etap hotel and expect a bed that will result in you feeling anything less than thoroughly abused. Mind you, the shower was great. POWER!
• Walking through the NEC at night is way creepy. Industrial estates aren't the nicest of places in daylight, but at least there are noises then.
• I no longer care to argue about genre vs. literary. I'm now going to argue in favour of labelling the aforementioned argument being pointless. They're all books. Move on.
• Fans can be beyond common sense. Nerd arguments are funny, but also annoying and frustrating. Reasonable debate seems rather rare among fandom.
• 'Tropes' is actually pronounced 'tropés' (not really). One panellist kept saying it that way and I seriously began to question my command of language.
• The dealer room is a dangerous, DANGEROUS place.
• Talking like a pirate for an extended period of time really hurts your throat.
• If you can't find the lever, always push the plug.
• Filking isn't actually rude.
• I haven't entirely thought my female character's personalities through (the women-in-fantasy panel was very interesting!).
• There's a gap in the pet market for frunkies.
• If there's one thing that can drag you back to sugary coffee it's a 3am bedtime. Yes. I know. I'm aged.
• I need to finish projects. Seriously. As in, "you lot seriously need to harass me until I finish one story before I'm allowed to start a new one".

By the end of the con I was massively craving the vegetables. Junk food will get you so far... Quite far. Some might even say fairly far. But ultimately what it will get you is ill. The sweet potato and pea soup we made when we got home was possibly the best soup I've ever tasted (relatively). Roll on next year!

Thanks to Emma, Saxon, Tom, Amanda, Andrew, Cathy, David, Sue, Kathy and Vick for keeping us company. Awesome, lovely people!

A Work in Progress

A mockup of Charlotte's ring-to-be. I'm sure you'll agree it looks
quite awesome!

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Appropriate Reuse

So we were out searching for a stone circle to the east of Penrith. It was a beautiful day and we were enjoying views of the countryside and loving the lack of pressure to be anywhere and do anything. We spotted a family of bears while driving through the village of Lazonby. According to the workman, who kindly stopped his work so that I could take a picture, the bears were being put up to make up for the loss of the tree. Quite awesome I'm sure you'll agree.

Click here for a streetview of the tree that used to be here. Now I don't necessarily agree with chopping down such an awesome looking arboreal, but if it does have to be done, this is a fine idea to make up for it.

The Lake District

We went to the Lake District at the weekend and, according to the laws of random, I managed to take one half-decent photo. This is from the bottom of Place Fell at the south end of Ullswater.

Resolutions for 2010

2008's resolutions were a grand success. I no longer have sugar in coffee or tea and I only drink skimmed milk if possible. In contrast 2009's were a total wash, but I did buy a house and graduate with a distinction, so things worked out in grand fashion.

Here's the list for 2010...

1. Write every day.
2. Eat better (less pastry and bread).
3. Exercise more.
4. Keep school nights free of guests.
5. Learn more career related skills.
6. Watch less TV.
7. Drink less coffee.
8. Get up earlier.
9. Work harder to ignore anxiety and annoyance.
10. Take regular holidays.

Lofty goals indeed. Here's hoping I stick to at least one of them.

Onward!

Fundamental Change of Outlook

I've decided to stop getting stressed over things I can't change. No. Really. Stop laughing... I'm right here you know!

Anyone who has spent any amount of time around me will know that anxiety is a good friend of mine. All those sad little thoughts mount up at the back of my mind until they spill over and show me exactly how the life I've built for myself could go horrifically wrong. Then comes the sadness, the anger, the frustration and the absolute shitting terror. There's a lot out there to worry about and I tend to let it influence me more than other people I know... unless they just hide it better.

Anyway, it took living with someone to really understand what a problem anxiety was. Living alone you have no perspective. You don't know what it's doing to you and the potential it has to mess with other people. It's very hard to get a good sense of your own mannerisms when you live on your own. That and you just don't care as much.

So here we are at the end of the decade with Christmas bearing down on us. This is me making a conscious decision to not sweat the small stuff, or the big stuff that I have no control over.

We'll see how it goes...